3.13.2012

hi everyone! i hope you all had a lovely weekend! my husband is out of town this week so that means that i will be clattering away at the sewing machine during my evenings, trying to make decent headway on my spring wardrobe. it also means that i'll be nerding out with harry potter audio books - which i practically have memorized - all week long!!!

change of subject! you guys seemed pretty intrigued by my plans for the "draped leather jacket" so i thought i would share some of the behind-the-scenes action. i'd like to share some of my "design process" for this jacket, since i drafted the pattern myself, and also some of my experiences in working with the lambskin (i think in my last post i called it sheepskin, but its actually lambskin).

first - a disclaimer: you guys. i am not a designer. i have zero background in this stuff. i've never even taken a class. i have one pattern making book that i've had for less than three months and i'm the queen of google searches. thats the extent of my knowledge. so please don't think of any of this as some sort of tutorial, or of me as some voice of authority. i don't know what i'm doing! this is just more of a chronicle of my experimentation, and, despite the fact that i don't know the right way to do a lot of this stuff, i'm happy with the results - for me! the same is true of working with leather. this was my first time handling the stuff so it was all a learning experience...

now that i got that off my chest, lets talk about my fumbling experience with pattern drafting...

i started with my sloper. this was the finished state of it after many hair wrenching re-drafts. actually i think the sleeves on this guy are still sucky, but i gave up. also, please ignore the fact that all these muslins are a wrinkled mess - they've been living in a ball on the edge of my sewing table. aaaand please ignore the ripped "v" at the neck. in a state of fitting frustration i tore open the muslin - incredible hulk style - only to realize that it solved the majority of my fitting woes... sometimes channeling a bit of roid rage has its benefits...

using my sloper i was able to make a torso block (which is basically the same thing as the bodice in the first picture, except that it extends down to hip level) and from that i drafted a basic two-dart jacket. i added ease and extended the shoulders. this first try was really big all around so i pinched out excess fabric at the front and back darts and the side.

the next go-around was a bit more flattering, but i still had some excess in the front (you can see how i pinned it out). i also experimented with the construction on this one, sewing the sleeves in flat and then sewing up the side seam and underarm seam in one go. this worked really well for me.

this next version was sewn up in some creepy polyester stuff thats been hanging around for way too long. (side rant - why can't i get polyester to press flat? also, why does it smell like a 70's basement when i press it? that stuff is just icky...) here i converted all my darts to princess seams - which i had to take in because apparently i'm not as busty as i thought. i was pretty happy with this muslin and considered using it as my final draft.... except for the sleeves!!!

a word about sleeves... again (deeeep siiighhhh) so for this jacket i was very worried about the sleeve ease because i knew i was going to be sewing it out of leather and, well, leather doesn't ease. so i drafted a sleeve and armhole that had zero ease.

you guys. i'm sure a lot of you have read the article on fashion incubator about sleeve ease being unnecessary and its all about the shape of the sleeve cap/armhole? if not, you can read it here. but i caution you. after i read it i felt like i had entered myself into the extreme sports of sewing. all of a sudden it was like "sallie just parachuted into an active volcano - but can she draft a sleeve without ease?!?" i think it caused more problems for me than if i had just worked with the stupid looking sleeve draft that was in my book.

here's the thing - again, from my limited experience. to make a sleeve that had zero ease i had to extend the shoulder seam about 1/2 inch. and it worked. and it looked... okay. but i just felt that, design wise, the wide shoulder wasn't the most flattering. as you can imagine, it made my shoulders look wide. so i decided to shorten the shoulder seam again and add sleeve cap height to compensate for the roundness of the upper shoulder. i figured my leather would be able to handle some gathering, as long as it wasn't excessive. and... it worked! so while i think that perhaps sleeve cap ease can be eliminated it will alter the design of your look. i just can't figure out how you'd make a sleeve with zero ease work without having a wider shoulder. reading this post helped me disqualify myself from the extreme sports of sewing and just freaking make it work!!

so, the conclusion of my sleeve saga: don't get caught up in chasing the mythological sleeve. its not worth it and you'll end up trying to prove something to yourself, which is, in the end, pointless. just make a sleeve that works and move on with your damn life! my final sleeve? meh. i'm not in love, but it looks okay to me.

for this muslin i worked with the sleeve ease and shorter shoulder seam and found that it resulted in a very comfy sleeve (armhole looks weird here because i pressed it weird - promise). i almost started going down the rabbit-hole of fitting (over-fitting?) only to stop myself. i decided i liked the look of this jacket. it may not be the most "correct" fit in the world, but it fit the way i wanted it to and so i decided to focus my attention on drafting the draped front that i wanted. this was really the fun part. to do this i just cut a few triangles and pinned them together until i got the sort of shape that i had in mind. its certainly not an earth-shattering design, but it was fun to figure out.

a whole mess of discarded patterns and one dorky kitty

at this point i made all the final changes to my paper patterns and wrote out some instructions for myself to i could walk myself through the construction in my head.

then i cut out the leather.....

yes that is a brick up there on the right. it is my most favorite of pattern weights...

as i mentioned, this was my first time working with leather. i blame it all on amy from cloth habit for casually mentioning that she was going to be makingthis fabulous coat with leather trim. before this - i had never even dreamed of sewing with leather. but because of her the idea impregnated itself in my brain, and - after the usual gestation period - i now have a leather jacket baby!

here's some of my thoughts on working with leather - in no particular order:

this stuff is awesome!

really, a dream to work with!!

imagonna make everything out of leeaaathhhherrrrrrrr!!!!!

so yeah. i liked it.

i traced my pattern pieces onto the leather hides (it took 4 hides to make my jacket) i followed this advice, once again from fashion incubator, on how to lay out your pattern pieces. then i just cut the pieces with my rotary cutter. no weird shifting, no fraying... easy peasy lemon squeezy.

i did a few tests with some scraps, figuring out needles and stitch length and top stitching. since the leather i was working with was pretty thin and drapey my regular universal needles worked okay, but the leather needle made a cleaner hole and i think it handled thicker layers better.

i had read in a bunch of places on ye olde worlde wide webb that a teflon foot was recommended for sewing leather. i didn't have one and didn't feel like buying one so i used my even feed walking foot. worked like a charm.

the same world wide web told me that pinning leather was not advisable since it will leave permanent holes in the leather. a few sites suggested to clip the leather pieces together with bulldog (binder) clips instead. i tried this but found that the clip would get caught on the edge of my throat plate on my sewing machine and yank the leather as it was being fed through. so instead i decided to just use plain old masking tape and taped my seams together. also (shhh) i used pins. yeah. i did. freaking rebel over here. i just made sure to pin in the seam allowance.

pressing seams was another switch up from your standard fabric sewing. i didn't even try to iron the leather, i just assumed it wouldn't work. so i bought this little ink roller (brayer) and rolled it over the seams to flatten them a few times, then used a thin layer of rubber cement to tack my seam allowances down. fun!

some other firsts for me on this project - working with rayon bemberg (ambience stuff) and bagging a jacket lining (had to modify this a bit since i left the front edge of the jacket unfinished because leather doesn't fray!!!).

really, the whole thing came together quite quickly and without any drama. maybe its because i essentially sewed the jacket 3 times before i set to work with the leather, or maybe it was just an easy pattern. but whatever. i finished the jacket last night (at the same time i finished listening to deathly hallows for the 455th time... me and harry potter, we're so in sync!) and i really like it!

47 comments:

Oh man, I can't wait to see this jacket. I love how the muslin is looking, and your little leather teases. Delicious! Isn't that bemberg rayon so amazing? It's a pain to work with but totally worth the effort, in my opinion.

I hate that nasty 70s polyester, but it is soo great for making muslins - cheap and easy to come by! For pressing, you'll never get a true flat/sharp crease, but you can fudge a little by using a press cloth and turning up the heat on your iron (not quite to cotton, I use the silk setting with steam) and then pressing down on the seams with a clapper after you take the iron off. It does help quite a bit!

And can I just say I love that you're using a little roller & glue to make this jacket? Eee it's like you're in an arts & crafts class - fun!

the bemberg was a shifty little minx for sure! but man! it feeels sooo goooooood!!

thanks for the tips on the polyester - it was driving me insane! i do think its handy for muslins, especially for things that are going to be made out of heavier fabric - so i think i might keep some around.

isn't that roller cute!?!? I definitely felt like it was craft time - maybe i was just getting high off the rubber cement...

The rubber cement didn't add any bulk, I actually felt that after rolling it and pounding it I was able to reduce a lot of potential bulk. I didn't even think about it stiffening up over time, to be honest (eek!) I guess it could...I think my other option would have been to topstitch each seam which I didn't really want to do. All in all I'm not too worried - but I'll let you know ;)

This is going to be so pretty! Leather is so perfect for that waterfall lapel. Thanks for showing all your process, it's so cool to see how it evolved. (I took like 8 pages of notes on construction order and wrote on my leather, too.) I'm curious--how many skins did it take for the jacket? (Good to know for the future...)

Ahhh sleeves... I don't want to send you even further down the rabbit trail, but in case you or someone else is curious, Kathleen at F-I wrote several more entries about sleeves and particularly armholes. How the armscye is drafted differently than most patternmaking blocks, to match that kind of sleeve with no ease. It seems to me that the armhole gains length in the front curve rather than at the shoulder line, and the back armhole gets a bit shorter and less curved.

I know, you can totally get lost on her site. I also have two patternmaking books that have very different sloper/blocks with more of these kind of sleeve/armhole combinations. I think that's gonna be one of my summer projects, to work from one of these books and see how the sleeves turn out. Hopefully I won't get too obsessed!

i can't.. i don't even... gaaahhh!!!! SLEEVES!!! Haha! Actually I did see those posts but I was too worn out to make any sense of them. Your paraphrasing of whats going on with the armholes in her posts is actually a huge help! I might just try that - next time I make something with sleeves (which will be awhile, thank you summer)

Also - it took 4 skins to make the jacket (one skin was very tiny, a really baby lamb perhaps? *gulp*) I have a lot of scraps leftover because I cut most of my pieces from the very center. I'm hoping I can use those up on trim or something...

Whoa! Thats totally good to know! I don't have any real beef with fusible interfacing - especially on medium/heavy fabrics (is that bad?!) I like to use a sew in interfacing on delicate fabric, but thats just personal preference.

Sallie, this looks awesome! I'm glad you achieved a sleeve you are happy with. As you mentioned, I have done many, many, many tests for a zero ease sleeve including all the armhole variations and I think it is truly impossible unless you have an extended shoulder. The narrow shoulder with a little sleeve ease is definitely more flattering and contemporary.

Thank you Alexandra! Your posts really helped me - It was so good to see the sleeve heads illustrated and the differences in the final sleeve. I think I'll still have to work on mine a bit, but as I said, this was good enough for me right now!

I was thinking about sleeves all day today before I read your post. I hate them!! It's inspiring though to see that you've drafted a sloper and sleeves that you are at least sort of satisfied with - I think I may have to take this route eventually. What book are you using?

I got "Patternmaking for Fashion Design" by Helen Joseph-Armstrong for Christmas. I've used it to draft my sloper and followed it to make the changes to the sloper to turn it into a jacket. Overall I feel like this book tells you to put more ease into garments than I personally am comfortable with - and I didn't like the sleeve draft so I set out on my own quest for that one! But the basic design principals are really comprehensive and it covers a lot of variations (its a biiiiiiig book so there is ALOT of information). There's some cursory information on fitting, but I think if you're having a lot of trouble with fitting you might want to get a fitting book!

I always find it intriguing to see in-progress and working pictures, though I must say you're way more organized than I am! I like how your jacket is turning out.

IME it is certainly possible to press creepy polyester flat but there's a fine line between pressing it flat and burning it. I use a heat setting above the official poly setting. I have to sew with it a lot at work since it's perm press and impervious to almost anything that gets thrown at it. Horrible stuff. Lovely natural fibers are so much easier and more pleasant to sew.

I really don't want to hate polyester - even though I don't particularly care to wear it, especially in our climate - but there are times when its just so much more economical. But I was really surprised by how difficult I found it to work with! If I give it a shot again, I'll definitely keep your advice, and some of the other tips I've gotten, in mind. Thanks!

Lady, this jacket is going to be SO DOPE I can't even wait. You've inspired me to do something with leather. I have an old big ass skirt I've been meaning to take apart and re-work. So excited to see the final product.

Do it!! DO IT!! Its so lovely - really not as hard to work with as it sounds. It doesn't fray, it doesn't shift and scoot around on you, if you cut it slightly off grain its not the end of the world... The only thing I'd say is depending on your leather it can get a mite bulky (mine was pretty thin so I didn't have too much of an issue with this) and also depending on your leather it can stick a bit on the throat plate (again, not a problem I had but I've heard tell of it) but thats easily solved with a few tricks and tools... the internet will provide...

Your comment about the Harry Potter audiobooks cracked me up!! I do that, too -- have been all through Jane Austen now and am moving on to "The Three Musketeers" which is HILARIOUS as an audiobook because the reader gives all the royalty lisps.

Also thanks for pointing the way to "the Fashion Incubator." This site is awesome. I am really excited to try the saran wrap sloper method... have you ever tried that?

Oh man, your jacket reminds me of a Rick Owens that I can't afford at the moment. I loooove sewing in leather! Took a class while back and we used a teflon foot and uphlostery thread. It was so much fun--all that banging (I used a mallet)and the glueing--made me feel like a bad ass. You can iron leather, just make sure it's DRY and use a towel. Kudos on the jacket, I'm sure it'll look fabulous. And omg, I love HP on audio!!! When I used to help my husband prep his canvases, we plowed through the whole series. Thanks for the fond memories!

So this is kind of embarrassing, but I always confuse Rick Owens and Rick Springfield - so when I first read your comment I was like "AWESOME! I LOOK LIKE AN 80'S ROCKSTAR!!! Life Mission: Complete." But then I realized that didn't really make any sense and was like, "OOhhhhhhh the designer! DUH!" Got it now. Still a huge compliment. Thank You!

Don't rule out the 80's Rockstar life mission just yet! Rick Springfield rocked some pretty jazzy leather jackets in his day. Stitch up another jacket w/some scrunched up sleeves--it might be less of a commitment to growing out his super sauve-y mullet;)

btw-I'm in my own redrafting armhole/sleeve hell. Burda pattern be damned! Give me a few more days w/it and I'll be teasing my hair and singing Jesse's Girl right there with you!

Okay, I'll admit it... when I first started reading this post, my heart was palpitating. Like, OMG my waxed canvas jacket is going to be a disaster my sleeves are going to suck holy crap why am I sewing with this textile. And then I clicked over to the FI post. And you know what? The sleeves in the pattern are shaped like the "correct" version. Which I first thought odd when cutting out, and totally understood when constructing. I should really read more of Kathleen's site.

Reading of your pattern drafting troubles, I wanted to send you something but I can't find your email address (is it actually on the site somewhere? If not, can you put it up?). So could you email me so I can email you the thing via reply?